Thursday, August 10, 2017

Author LG SURGESON Is In My Hot Seat!

The publishing world of literature is rough, but
I am thinking it isn’t as difficult as your normal “day” job – You’re a math
teacher in a special school for students with emotional and social
difficulties! Yep, I need to interview
you!

1.Let’s start as I always do –
please, tell us how you’d describe yourself?

Difficult. I can tell you
what I do, and how I look, but that doesn't really answer the question.

I was brought up as a dreamer, but with my feet firmly on the
ground, and with the belief that people are just people and they all deserve
care, freedom and love. I suppose I'm a natural story-teller, a bit of a free
spirit, a loyal friend, open-hearted but not sentimental. According to an old friend, I'm the kind of
rebel that knows when to break the rules and when to follow them. Not sure how much of an accurate picture that
paints, but it'll have to do.

2.Before we get into talking
about writing and publishing, I want to discuss your everyday life. Math is so technical, and well, hated!
I get the correlation between writing and
mathematics – the abstract thinking, hypothesizing, and you have that
whole ‘matrix’ thing (maybe you have a different
meaning for ‘matrix’ than I do? J) – Still, it is a completely
different world than writing and literature.
I have so many questions to ask you!

oDefine ‘Matrix’?

·An array of digits that follow certain rules.

oBeing a creative person,
who loved writing and reading from such a young age, how did you end up
becoming a math teacher?

·I'm good at it. I may have loved writing and reading from a very
early age, but I'm dyslexic, and I didn't know until I was in my twenties, so
essay subjects were something I struggled with at school. Math is beautiful in
its own way and awesome, so I studied that. And I always wanted to teach, so that's what I
teach.

oWhat’s an ‘exponential’?

·An exponential is a function that is basically defined as
constant to the power of a variable. This makes the function increase in a
curve.

oDid you intend to work in
a school for troubled kids? If yes, then
why, and if no, how’d you gain a position in one?

·Yes, I did.

·I have a knack for connecting with kids who have emotional and
behaviour difficulties, and that connection is vital if you want to help them
learn. I've always had the knack throughout my career, and whilst I've now got
years of training and experience, the basics were something that comes
naturally.

3.Now, a conversation about your writing. I am sure I will work in a few things about
being an avid
reader and your path to publication.

oWhat first led you to
putting a pen to paper?

·I have no idea. I come
from a family of story tellers, books and films are a big part of our family
still. When I was growing up, making up story was the most natural thing in the
world.

ØI read you were inspired to write by Jo March, protagonist in LITTLE WOMEN.
What made her so special to you?

Jo March was a strong, independent woman that did things her own
way – that's something I've always been able to relate to. She wasn't
interested in traditional female priorities, and she wrote. Even at the age of
six, I could relate to that. I wanted to sit up in the attic late at night and
have stories come alive to me the way they did for Jo.

ØWhat was it about LITTLE WOMEN that made such an impact on you,
particularly at such a young age?

Little Women is a family thing. My mother & my grandmother
both love the book. My 'Ama' read it to me as a very young girl, and I was
intrigued by the four sisters. The story has become something of a special
connection between the women in my family, gentle humour and the beautiful,
simplicity of the family's affection and faith, as well as, Jo's independence
appealed to all of us.

oDo you think your love of
reading sparked your need to write, or did your love of writing enflame your
desire to read?

·I, actually, wrote a book before I read one independently – like
I said, I had no idea I was dyslexic, so I didn't know why I found it so
difficult to finish a book, but I did. I was 9 before I managed to finish one
on my own.

oYou have been writing your
whole life – you even wrote your first book at age seven –what drew
you to writing, and where do you find your stories?

·Like I say, books are a really important part of my family –
stories, with humour, particularly – are something that I have always been
surrounded by. Mum encouraged me to put my work in writing, and helped me to
consolidate ideas. After that, I was always coming up with new stories and
characters. I still see stories in everything, it's the ‘what ifs’ and the ‘maybes’
in things that I love.

·Apart from Louisa May Alcott & Jo March, probably my biggest
influence as a writer is Sir Terry Prachett, I love the way he takes the fantastical and makes it real, the
people in his books live ordinary lives with privies and damp, and they are
still heroes.

oWhy do you prefer to
write fantasy adventures and semi-autobiographical tales of teachers? Do you prefer to read from these genres as
well?

·Fantasy gives you the scope to explore a different world, to be
creative and free, and to take flights of whim and amusement. When it comes to
writing fiction, it's about painting a picture of what you see. It's got to
feel plausible, but you can tell stories that connect more directly with
people's experiences.

·In terms of reading, I like comic/light-hearted fantasy similar
to what I write, and speculative fiction.

4.POP QUIZ! Ah, how the tables
have turned!J

oWhat is a ‘binomial’?

·A binomial is an algebraic expression that involves the sum or
difference of two terms

oWhen you’ve described
your writing, what does ‘semi-autobiographical’ mean to you?

·Semi-autobiographical means that some of the details, conversations
and scenarios in the stories are things that have actually happened to me, and
the factious stuff is based on my knowledge and experiences.

oWhen writing out a
number, where do you place the ‘and’? (you can find answer here)

·You'd put it where you would say it, so usually before either
the tens digit or the units digit if the tens column is zero.

oHow many words do you need for your
book to be considered a novel? (you can find answerhere)

oThe first question HAS to
be – why aren’t you writing the series in chronological order?

·It's no secret by now that before I wrote the Black River
Chronicles as a series of novels, I worked on a live action roleplaying system
in Aberystwyth. For twelve years, I worked on the team that wrote the plots and
settings for the game. Before I'd even thought of writing the novels, the plot
arc of the Chronicles existed.

·I hadn't originally intended to write more than one novel. The Freetown Bridge, which is based on a
specific event, was the easiest story to tell as a free standing novel. Then,
when I realised how much I loved writing that story, I started writing Dawn of Darkness – book 5, which was a piece
of plot work I was really proud of.
After I started that – whilst I was still writing The Freetown Bridge – I decided I'd map out
the whole series. Once I knew what I was writing, I just dived in where I felt
like it.

·A Guild, in medieval times, was a trade organisation that
supported and regulated a certain profession.

·The Aberddu Guild of Adventurers is just one of many Guilds in
the city.

· The adventurers that
belong to the guild are a bunch of individuals with a unique range of talents.
They are available for hire by people who require their talents for everything
from rescuing damsels in distress to investigating long forgotten crypts. More
often, they end up stuck in the middle of good and evil, trying to referee.
Most of the adventurers join the guild for the excitement or the fortune – they
tend to stay because no one else will put up with them after a few months as an
adventurer.

·The Black River Chronicles is a series that doesn't take itself
too seriously. It's not written entirely for laughs, but it has a light side,
and it tries to connect on a 'human' level with the readers.

oCan you give us a quick
overview as to what this series is about – not the individual books per say,
but the collection of tales as a whole?

·The series follows the adventurers as they try their best to
stop various evils and save the world, even though, all they signed up for was
a little light bandit-killing and the occasional Temple raid. Like they say,
'it's a mad world, but someone's got to save it'.

6.FINAL EXAM! I hope you studied!J

oWhat can we expect to see
from you over the coming year?

·I'm hoping to be able to release the next 3 books in the
BRC in the next year, and maybe another book set in the same world.

Thank you for taking the time to meet with me
today. It has been a lot of fun, and I
am sure my readers will be excited to learn more about you. I wish you all the success in the world, and
thank you for helping to shape the minds of our youth!

Join author, Marnie Cate as she hosts a fun and interactive vlog that is all about writing!

♥♥♥

***NOTE***

Submissions are NOT guaranteed.

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